A Salt Lake City bid could still take place for 2030 ©Getty Images

Salt Lake City officials have admitted they do not yet know the full reasoning behind the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) announcement that the country will not bid for the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

They still plan, however, to bid regardless for the 2030 edition.

USOC chairman Larry Probst revealed yesterday the US did not "currently" plan to bid for 2026 because it would make things “extremely complicated” from a financial standpoint with Los Angeles 2028.

Probst claimed they were still open to the possibility of 2030 and did not rule out their interest in submitting their intention now to be part of a potential joint awarding of the next two editions.

"We don’t know what it [the USOC comments] means yet," Fraser Bullock, co-chairman of the state's Olympic Exploratory Committee, told the Deseret News, 

"Even if we’re not in the 2026 process, we’ll be in the 2030 process.

"I think the negative is we have a lot of momentum now.

"We just want to keep moving forward.

"If we only participate in a 2030 process, it doesn’t change the end date - it slows down a bit our activity."

A new report has revealed that Salt Lake City would use many of the venues it built for the 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Games if they awarded the event in 2030 ©YouTube
A new report has revealed that Salt Lake City would use many of the venues it built for the 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Games if they awarded the event in 2030 ©YouTube

Salt Lake City, the location for the last US Winter Olympics in 2002, is one of three places to submit interest in a bid, along with Denver and Reno.

Jeff Robbins, President and chief executive of Utah Sports Commission and co-chair of an Exploratory Committee, insisted they remain enthusiastic.

"We’re going to keep on our toes and remain fluid and adapt as we need to," he told Deseret News.

"Our goal is to continue really evangelising and just showing how ready, willing and able we are.

"That strategy hasn’t changed."

Calgary in Canada, Sion in Switzerland, Sapporo in Japan and Stockholm in Sweden are other potential contenders for 2026.

Ramonna Robinson, a spokesperson for Denver’s potential bid, told Deseret News they will continue to determine if they want to bid "regardless of whether that is in 2026, 2030 or 2034".

Both Bullock and Robbins are due to travel next week to meet with officials and gather experience from another Winter Olympics.

Salt Lake City have released a 140-page report that concluded the city could re-use many venues from the Salt Lake City 2002 Games and predicted an estimated budget of $1.35 billion (£970 million/€1.1 billion).